Musicovery
Encyclopedia
Musicovery is an interactive and customised webradio service. Listeners rate songs, resulting in a personalized programme. Reviewers have commented that unlike services that are governed by the user's choice of artist or genre, this method results in more discovery of artists to which the user might not otherwise have been exposed; The Washington Post
' s reviewer gave the example of "segueing from a West Coast
R&B band to a folk
–rock
group from Algeria
".Musicovery provides dance mix — with the ability to specify the desired dance tempo — and similar artist features, as well as the option of a low fidelity
free service or a premium service with better sound. Users have the option to limit the selection to a specific year or range of years, as well as to deselect any genre, and genres are color-keyed to the graphic interface. At least one U.S. newspaper reported that major advertising agency JWT
listed Musicovery on its 2007 list of "80 things to watch in 2008," a list of trends and new products and services; however, the article does not indicate whether the agency had any business relationship with companies on the list.
The webradio service is accessible on mobile phone
(on 3G/Symbian Nokia Devices) Iphone and Ipod Touch.
Music files provided by the service are streamed, not downloaded, and the listener can buy all the songs played or tagged as favorite from major online music retailers iTunes
, Amazon
, and eBay
.
Castaignet has created the "Mood pad", a proprietary technology enabling listeners to find intuitively music matching their mood (see Technology).
Vavrille is the creator of Liveplasma.com, a graphic discovery engine. Liveplasma was created in 2004 and is a graphical interface based on Liveplasma technology. The Liveplasma technology creates a graphical map of possible tastes, with songs most likely to please the user appearing closer to the current song on the visual map than songs less similar.
Musicovery webradio was beta-tested in June 2006 and launched in November 2006.
After four years, a completely redesigned Musicovery website was launched in July 2010. The new version does not feature Liveplasma technology, and has many fewer features available in the free version of the site.
An Iphone application was launched in September 2010.
The Musicovery team is based in Paris, France.
The streaming music is at low quality 32kb/s on the free platform, and at good quality 128kb/s on the paid platform.
While critics generally have praised the site's graphic interface, ability to make unusual but fitting song suggestions, and innovation in using mood as a grouping strategy, one otherwise favorable review complained of the "limited overall title base". Another reviewer noted that the technology used to classify each song by mood had its limitations, observing that the service "persists in, for example, believing that "Crazy Frog
" puts me in a good mood, whereas this techno air instead gives me a death wish."
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
R&B band to a folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
–rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
group from Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
".Musicovery provides dance mix — with the ability to specify the desired dance tempo — and similar artist features, as well as the option of a low fidelity
Low fidelity
Low fidelity or lo-fi describes a sound recording which contains technical flaws such as distortion, hum, or background noise, or limited frequency response...
free service or a premium service with better sound. Users have the option to limit the selection to a specific year or range of years, as well as to deselect any genre, and genres are color-keyed to the graphic interface. At least one U.S. newspaper reported that major advertising agency JWT
JWT
JWT is one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York. The global agency is led by Worldwide Chairman and Global CEO Bob Jeffrey who took over the...
listed Musicovery on its 2007 list of "80 things to watch in 2008," a list of trends and new products and services; however, the article does not indicate whether the agency had any business relationship with companies on the list.
The webradio service is accessible on mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
(on 3G/Symbian Nokia Devices) Iphone and Ipod Touch.
Music files provided by the service are streamed, not downloaded, and the listener can buy all the songs played or tagged as favorite from major online music retailers iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, and eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
.
History
Musicovery was founded by Vincent Castaignet and Frédéric Vavrille. They combined their technology in January 2006 to create the internet site Musicovery.com.Castaignet has created the "Mood pad", a proprietary technology enabling listeners to find intuitively music matching their mood (see Technology).
Vavrille is the creator of Liveplasma.com, a graphic discovery engine. Liveplasma was created in 2004 and is a graphical interface based on Liveplasma technology. The Liveplasma technology creates a graphical map of possible tastes, with songs most likely to please the user appearing closer to the current song on the visual map than songs less similar.
Musicovery webradio was beta-tested in June 2006 and launched in November 2006.
After four years, a completely redesigned Musicovery website was launched in July 2010. The new version does not feature Liveplasma technology, and has many fewer features available in the free version of the site.
An Iphone application was launched in September 2010.
The Musicovery team is based in Paris, France.
Technology
Musicovery relies on proprietary technology developed by its founders:- The "mood pad" technology: a music description methodology that enables to position any song on a 2 dimension continuous space (the “mood pad”); songs are described with 40 musical parameters; The technology is the result of 3 year research on music description and human acoustic perception.
The streaming music is at low quality 32kb/s on the free platform, and at good quality 128kb/s on the paid platform.
International service
The music catalogs are specific for each country and the site is translated in local languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, and French). The interface is adapted to local specifications where appropriate (for instance, country and folk genres are added for the US audience). The popularity scale of each song, a parameter influencing music programming, is specific to each country.While critics generally have praised the site's graphic interface, ability to make unusual but fitting song suggestions, and innovation in using mood as a grouping strategy, one otherwise favorable review complained of the "limited overall title base". Another reviewer noted that the technology used to classify each song by mood had its limitations, observing that the service "persists in, for example, believing that "Crazy Frog
Crazy Frog
Crazy Frog, originally known as Adam King, is a computer-animated character created in 2003 by Erik Wernquist. Marketed by the ringtone provider Jamba!, the animation was originally created to accompany a sound effect produced by Daniel Malmedahl in 1997 while attempting to imitate the sound of a...
" puts me in a good mood, whereas this techno air instead gives me a death wish."
Premium Features
- Skipping
- Banning a song skips it automatically
- Songs can also be skipped by removing them from the map
- High quality audio
- Play only favorite songs
- Play any song on the map at any time
- No ads
- Access artist and song info
Additional references
- Francesca Steele. "The Web Watcher: Hillary Clinton as Rocky Balboa; Musicovery," The Times (London), April 23, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
- Minutes - http://www.20minutes.fr/article/217964/High-Tech-Pratique-Musicovery-est-une-webradio-interactive-gratuite-et-en-francais-Cette-application-est-utilisable-La-version-gratuite-est-financee.php
- Brad Kava. "Take your pick! Our critics pick the best bets for Dec. 17–23," San Jose Mercury News (CA), December 17, 2006, page 3C.
- Jenn Kistler. "From the editor: Discover more music," Las Cruces Sun-News (NM), December 19, 2007, Pulse section.
- Steve Woodward. "Personal Tech/Playlists: Log on and listen up: Song suggestions for you," The Oregonian (Portland, OR), February 23, 2007, Living section, page E1.